June 23rd marked the one-year anniversary of Mount Fuji becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site. Interestingly enough, this volcano was named a cultural landmark as opposed to a natural landmark, encouraging us to look more closely at our definitions of nature and culture. Mount Fuji is one of the most-climbed mountains in the world, complete […]
French Fries, E-Waste, and Theory
We took the opportunity we had discussing french fries to look into the claims of a local fast food chain, Burgerville. We looked through Burgerville’s website and examined their claim to be local in more depth. First though, we had to define what we thought would even be considered local. We decided on a radius […]
Tuna, Lawns, and Bottled Water
We examined three different hybrid objects this week — tuna, lawns, and bottled water. Each time we took a different approach to exploring them. First we made a concept map that illustrated all thedifferent actors related to tuna consumption. After that, we split off into groups and discussed a specific actor. My group discussed the […]
Rethinking Wolves, Nuclear Power, and Ecoterrorism
Before studying wolves as a hybrid object, I really didn’t know much about them. I was surprised to learn about all the different sides of them, such as being apex predators, pests/threats, symbols of the wild, evil hunters, and management challenges. I especially thought the connection between wolves as evil hunters and as pests and […]
Objects of Concern: CO2 and Trees
It was interesting to examine different objects — CO2 and trees — through the text this week after completing my own situated project on Japanese biofuels. I really like being able to focus in on a certain object because it allows for more depth into a particular topic. Our discussion on CO2 explored CO2 as […]
Consumerism and Constructing Nature
After discussing our political economy, I got very frustrated with the state of consumerism in our society. Last semester in my economics class, we learned about planned and perceived obsolescence, and since then I have seen it everywhere. It’s heightened presence in the rapidly expanding world of technology is extremely prominent and problematic. For example, […]